When we first moved into the new house this past summer I was thrilled to discover we had a mature citrus tree in the back yard. The girls, especially Ashleigh, have been begging for a lemon tree for years now. With this tree, I was one step closer to a citrus grove.
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| Notice Ashleigh mowing the lawn with an old fashioned push mower? That lasted about two weeks. It mowed just fine. It just took us three days to get one section of the lawn mowed. |
At first we were unsure as to what type of citrus. The fruits were small and green when we moved in. I had such visions of delicious fresh oranges and juice every day! No scurvy for us! Then the fruits began to ripen and turn a delightful orange. Every few days the girls and I would go out and survey the tree making plans to buy a basket picker to get the fruits from the upper branches. And then we noticed the thorns. And even though the oranges were clearly ripe - falling off the tree ripe - the flesh was so bitter and sour it made us gag!
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| Lovely, ripe oranges full of anti-scurvy goodness! |
It turns out that our beautiful orange tree is one of the few types that produce sour oranges. These oranges are mostly used for essential oils although I have seen a few recipes for marmalade and other sauces.
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| How perfect! Not pictured Thorns of Death and Destruction! |
So I have not a sweet delicious orange tree but a sour bitter one. Looks like I'm going to need to learn how to can pretty soon so I can make marmalade!
Marmalade still fights scurvy, right?
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